The present invention relates generally to record players having devices for absorbing or damping the vibrations of their tone arms, and more particularly to a record player in which is provided a vibration absorbing or damping device for effectively damping unwanted resonance due to the compliance of a cantilever of a pickup cartridge and to the equivalent inertial mass of the tone arm.
In a record player, in general, a resonance phenomenon referred as a so-called arm resonance occurs as a result of the compliance of the cantilever of the pickup cartridge and the equivalent inertial mass of the tone arm. This arm resonance produces a peak of the order of 10 to 20 dB in the vicinity of approximately 5 to 10 Hz in a frequency characteristic, depending on the values of the above mentioned compliance and the equivalent inertial mass. For this reason, this arm resonance gives rise to a deterioration of the reproducing characteristics at low frequencies.
The reproducing performance of a tone arm may be broadly divided into a low-frequency reproducing performance and a tracing performance. In order to improve the low-frequency reproducing performance, it is necessary to decrease as much as possible the unwanted resonance peak due to the above mentioned arm resonance thereby to suppress the occurence of effects of cross-modulation distortion and the like. One expedient for preventing the occurrence of this arm resonance would appear to be to increase the resistance of the rotational pivot point of the tone arm thereby to damp the arm resonance.
However, the trend in recent years has been toward a reduction to a minimum of the resistance of this rotational pivot point of the tone arm in order to improve the above mentioned tracing performance. Consequently, if the pivot resistance of the tone arm were to be increased in order to damp the arm resonance, the tracing performance would be caused to deteriorate. Accordingly, it has not been possible to satisfy the improvements of both the low-frequency reproducing performance and the tracing performance by suitable selection of the value of the pivot resistance of the tone arm.
Therefore, there has been a need for a record player in which the pivot resistance of the tone arm is made low thereby to improve the tracing performance, and the arm resonance is reduced by some means thereby to improve the lowfrequency reproducing performance.